Around 18,000 Civilians Casualties Reported Since Beginning Of Russia-Ukraine War, Says UN Report

Russia's military attack on Ukraine completes 11 months today. According to a new report released by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday, over 18,000 civilian casualties have been reported as of January 3, 2023, since the beginning of the war. 

As per the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,18,358 civilian casualties were recorded. This includes 7,031 deaths. The UN mentions that the "actual figure could be significantly higher as reported victims are confirmed." The organisation also adds that tens of millions of people are in "potential danger of death".

The UN body said in a press release, "OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties."

The deployment of explosive weapons with wide-area impacts, such as heavy artillery bombardment, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes, were responsible for the majority of the civilian casualties that were documented, as per the report. 

According to The New York Times, in the beginning of November, US Defence officials estimated that both countries had lost a combined total of nearly 1,00,000 troops. As per the most recent figures released by Ukraine's Armed Forces on January 17, about 1,16,950 enemy troops had been "eliminated" since February 24, 2022. However, NDTV was not able to independently verify the claim.

It is also to be noted that less than 6,000 troop deaths have been officially reported by Vladimir Putin led Russia, during the war, which is currently nearing a year, as per Newsweek.